So why is it good to use IWBs? Here are some benefits of using the new technology in the classroom.
Benefits for the students:
1. Get students communicating and interacting
2. Suit a variety of learning styles
3. Motivate and engage students
4. Increase attention span and improve focus
5. Facilitate knowledge retention
Benefits for the teachers:
1. Reduce preparation time
2. Give freedom and flexibility in preparing the materials
3. Reinvigorate teachers who see how their students are enthusiastic and motivated
4. The possibilities given by the new technology motivate teachers to try out new approaches and inspire them to innovate their teaching
Benefits for classroom interaction:
1. Help change classroom dynamics
2. Introduce the fun and games element
3. Move the classes towards a student-centred approach
Wednesday 3 June 2009
The Pedagogy of IWB Lessons
The focus for learning is the same, whether or not ICT tools are employed. This focus in the case of NIS should reflect the aims of the IB. Taking the MYP as an example for the aims:
The (MYP) programme aims to enable students to:
• build upon their spirit of discovery to develop an understanding and enjoyment of the process of
learning, independently and in cooperation with others
• acquire knowledge and understanding and prepare for further learning
• recognize the extent to which knowledge is interrelated
• learn to communicate effectively in a variety of ways
• develop a sense of personal and cultural identity and a respect for themselves and for others
• acquire insights into local and global concerns affecting health, the community and the environment, and develop a sense of individual and collective responsibility and citizenship.
Some aspects of lessons, however, can be enhanced by the boards. For example, the interactive whiteboard is particularly useful when using a style known as inductive teaching, in which pupils are expected to reach hypothesis based on sorting, classifying and re-sorting information. This is, of course, fully supportive of aims of the programme as outlined above.
The teacher can model different ways in which information might be classified using the features of the board, such as moving objects, and using colour and highlighting, while bringing pupils into the process. Pupils can then work in small groups away from the board, taking the classification process further. They can be drawn back to the board at intervals so that different groups can present their thinking to the class for discussion, before continuing with the task.
Factors Which Influence Our Pedagogy
When developing IWB resources and lessons there are many factors that change our pedagogy. This screen shows some of them – are there any additional factors that play a big part in your participants’ pedagogical focus?
1. Age and pupil profile
· Individual skills and abilities of pupils will affect the way you use the IWB. But don’t feel that initial pupil lack of skills with the IWB will limit their interest or participation.
· The group’s social and emotional state will modify pedagogy, and you may need to use a very different lesson style on a Monday morning when compared to a Friday afternoon! Managing behaviour is important; the IWB is not a substitute for this.
· Personal factors will change the group dynamic and may or may not be a factor in your planning process.
2. Teaching style
· If a teacher stands at the front and is inviting discussion, the focus of attention will be at the front of the class.
· If a teacher moves around the classroom as they teach, there is usually more direct use of the board by pupils and this creates a more collaborative classroom.
· There is a difference between teachers who like to explain things and those who like to discuss ideas and question their pupils. These two types of teaching approaches will use the same resource very differently. For instance, when showing a video, questioners tend to stop and question. They will need to be aware that if they do this too much then the original resource may not be able to fulfil its task. When showing a video explainers may show it all the way through and then move on. They will need to be aware that some of their pupils would also benefit from a re-run of the video, asking questions the second time around.
· The balance of activity will be different according to teaching styles. Consider which learning processes are strongly dependent on particular teaching styles and consider ways to include others in lessons.
3. Lesson length
· Timers can be very useful in short lesson periods, to keep pupils on task and focused. This sharpens the lesson and gives pupils a more focused concern, if they feel they are working against the clock, and can heighten responsibility for their own outcomes.
· Longer lessons often benefit from a wide range of short activities to keep pupils’ attention levels high. This is most effective when activities last approximately 10 – 20 minutes each. Alternatively, longer lessons are useful for collaborative project work and give pupils the opportunity to really get their teeth into a problem.
Investigation of the Sample “Case Study Lessons”
Examination of 2 case study lessons, probably from Literacy and Maths or Science and then discussion and changing to suit the teacher’s lessons.
The (MYP) programme aims to enable students to:
• build upon their spirit of discovery to develop an understanding and enjoyment of the process of
learning, independently and in cooperation with others
• acquire knowledge and understanding and prepare for further learning
• recognize the extent to which knowledge is interrelated
• learn to communicate effectively in a variety of ways
• develop a sense of personal and cultural identity and a respect for themselves and for others
• acquire insights into local and global concerns affecting health, the community and the environment, and develop a sense of individual and collective responsibility and citizenship.
Some aspects of lessons, however, can be enhanced by the boards. For example, the interactive whiteboard is particularly useful when using a style known as inductive teaching, in which pupils are expected to reach hypothesis based on sorting, classifying and re-sorting information. This is, of course, fully supportive of aims of the programme as outlined above.
The teacher can model different ways in which information might be classified using the features of the board, such as moving objects, and using colour and highlighting, while bringing pupils into the process. Pupils can then work in small groups away from the board, taking the classification process further. They can be drawn back to the board at intervals so that different groups can present their thinking to the class for discussion, before continuing with the task.
Factors Which Influence Our Pedagogy
When developing IWB resources and lessons there are many factors that change our pedagogy. This screen shows some of them – are there any additional factors that play a big part in your participants’ pedagogical focus?
1. Age and pupil profile
· Individual skills and abilities of pupils will affect the way you use the IWB. But don’t feel that initial pupil lack of skills with the IWB will limit their interest or participation.
· The group’s social and emotional state will modify pedagogy, and you may need to use a very different lesson style on a Monday morning when compared to a Friday afternoon! Managing behaviour is important; the IWB is not a substitute for this.
· Personal factors will change the group dynamic and may or may not be a factor in your planning process.
2. Teaching style
· If a teacher stands at the front and is inviting discussion, the focus of attention will be at the front of the class.
· If a teacher moves around the classroom as they teach, there is usually more direct use of the board by pupils and this creates a more collaborative classroom.
· There is a difference between teachers who like to explain things and those who like to discuss ideas and question their pupils. These two types of teaching approaches will use the same resource very differently. For instance, when showing a video, questioners tend to stop and question. They will need to be aware that if they do this too much then the original resource may not be able to fulfil its task. When showing a video explainers may show it all the way through and then move on. They will need to be aware that some of their pupils would also benefit from a re-run of the video, asking questions the second time around.
· The balance of activity will be different according to teaching styles. Consider which learning processes are strongly dependent on particular teaching styles and consider ways to include others in lessons.
3. Lesson length
· Timers can be very useful in short lesson periods, to keep pupils on task and focused. This sharpens the lesson and gives pupils a more focused concern, if they feel they are working against the clock, and can heighten responsibility for their own outcomes.
· Longer lessons often benefit from a wide range of short activities to keep pupils’ attention levels high. This is most effective when activities last approximately 10 – 20 minutes each. Alternatively, longer lessons are useful for collaborative project work and give pupils the opportunity to really get their teeth into a problem.
Investigation of the Sample “Case Study Lessons”
Examination of 2 case study lessons, probably from Literacy and Maths or Science and then discussion and changing to suit the teacher’s lessons.
Effective use of your IWB
Effective use of your IWB
Whiteboards are fantastic tools which allow teachers to challenge thinking, use effective questioning, extend the quality of the interactions, control and maintain the pace of the lesson, engage students to a greater extent than conventional whole class teaching, increase enjoyment, motivation and involvement and easily access and use high quality resources. Exploit the INTERACTIVITY • Manipulate text in new ways; (highlight, change colour, magically reveal) Use the pen on maps, images etc. • Move/drag objects, edit and add objects to the page whilst teaching. • Make the most of the infinite pages and space- hang text and images off the side of the page to avoid cluttering the space, enjoy revisiting the pages in any order you want to. • Use layers to show, hide and reveal answers to engage the pupils and save time. • Add media such as images, sound effects, video etc to excite, motivate, encourage thoughts and feelings • Link to web sites, to enrich the pupil experience • Link to worksheets and presentations for enrichment, support or extension activities, • Capture pupil attention and maintain focus with tools such as the spotlight, camera, revealer. • Display and explore clear, accurate diagrams; label, resize etc explore detail with the magnifying glass. • Model abstract ideas- rotation of shapes, perspective, time zones, capturing sections of video, short episodes of animation or video. • Use tools such as the ruler, protractor, calculator, fraction generator to demonstrate skills, and demonstrate concepts • Use colours and backgrounds to help dyslexic readers, or to engage the audience. • Collaborative with pupils to make lists, poems, answers which they have shared ownership of. Reduce TEACHER WORKLOAD • Prepare materials in advance use, evaluate, change and save ready for the next time. • Share materials with staff, sharing the department or year group workload. • Download ready made resources from the Internet and customise to suit your lessons and your class. • Allow flipcharts created to be accessed for pupil revision. Increase PACE of lessons • Use previous flipcharts to recap at the start of the next lesson. • When appropriate, print flipcharts for a class to put in jotters or for children who are absent. • Hang reminders off the side of the page or put into teacher notes. • Use specific tools to add to the efficiency of a lesson, such as timer, calculator, camera. Use your whiteboard in a VARIETY of ways • Interactive tool for teaching, making flipcharts and teaching with them and saving them for the future. • Big screen for showing pre-prepared documents, such as word documents, scanned worksheets, images and PowerPoint or for multimedia resources such as Click view, websites. • To display photographs and video taken in class. • Class collaboration -sharing pupil ideas, such as manipulating texts together, creating poetry together. • Demonstrating how to use a piece of software, such as Photoshop, PowerPoint, • To share good work or display children’s work to discuss as a group. • Use other peripherals, microscopes, visualisers, cameras, video cameras. • used by a group of children during the independent activity. • To write on as a ‘chalkboard’. Pitfalls to avoid • Having lots of children out using the board can interfere with the lesson pace, unless well planned. • Try not to only use the IWB as a projector screen.
Whiteboards are fantastic tools which allow teachers to challenge thinking, use effective questioning, extend the quality of the interactions, control and maintain the pace of the lesson, engage students to a greater extent than conventional whole class teaching, increase enjoyment, motivation and involvement and easily access and use high quality resources. Exploit the INTERACTIVITY • Manipulate text in new ways; (highlight, change colour, magically reveal) Use the pen on maps, images etc. • Move/drag objects, edit and add objects to the page whilst teaching. • Make the most of the infinite pages and space- hang text and images off the side of the page to avoid cluttering the space, enjoy revisiting the pages in any order you want to. • Use layers to show, hide and reveal answers to engage the pupils and save time. • Add media such as images, sound effects, video etc to excite, motivate, encourage thoughts and feelings • Link to web sites, to enrich the pupil experience • Link to worksheets and presentations for enrichment, support or extension activities, • Capture pupil attention and maintain focus with tools such as the spotlight, camera, revealer. • Display and explore clear, accurate diagrams; label, resize etc explore detail with the magnifying glass. • Model abstract ideas- rotation of shapes, perspective, time zones, capturing sections of video, short episodes of animation or video. • Use tools such as the ruler, protractor, calculator, fraction generator to demonstrate skills, and demonstrate concepts • Use colours and backgrounds to help dyslexic readers, or to engage the audience. • Collaborative with pupils to make lists, poems, answers which they have shared ownership of. Reduce TEACHER WORKLOAD • Prepare materials in advance use, evaluate, change and save ready for the next time. • Share materials with staff, sharing the department or year group workload. • Download ready made resources from the Internet and customise to suit your lessons and your class. • Allow flipcharts created to be accessed for pupil revision. Increase PACE of lessons • Use previous flipcharts to recap at the start of the next lesson. • When appropriate, print flipcharts for a class to put in jotters or for children who are absent. • Hang reminders off the side of the page or put into teacher notes. • Use specific tools to add to the efficiency of a lesson, such as timer, calculator, camera. Use your whiteboard in a VARIETY of ways • Interactive tool for teaching, making flipcharts and teaching with them and saving them for the future. • Big screen for showing pre-prepared documents, such as word documents, scanned worksheets, images and PowerPoint or for multimedia resources such as Click view, websites. • To display photographs and video taken in class. • Class collaboration -sharing pupil ideas, such as manipulating texts together, creating poetry together. • Demonstrating how to use a piece of software, such as Photoshop, PowerPoint, • To share good work or display children’s work to discuss as a group. • Use other peripherals, microscopes, visualisers, cameras, video cameras. • used by a group of children during the independent activity. • To write on as a ‘chalkboard’. Pitfalls to avoid • Having lots of children out using the board can interfere with the lesson pace, unless well planned. • Try not to only use the IWB as a projector screen.
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